It sounds like New York Giants fans don’t have to worry about the playing future of quarterback Daniel Jones.
“We’d like Daniel to be here,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen told reporters on Monday, per Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “He said it [Sunday], there is a business side to it. But we feel like Daniel played well this season. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to. … We would like to have Daniel Jones back.”
Jones raised some eyebrows when he said following Saturday’s 38-7 playoff loss at the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles that he’d “love to be back” but also understood that “there’s a business side to this thing too.”
However, Schoen added on Monday the organization was “happy” that Jones is “going to be here” and that the plan is “to build a team around (Jones) where he could lead us to win a Super Bowl.”
Schoen made the jump from serving as Buffalo Bills assistant general manager to becoming Big Blue general manager last January, and the executive later declined the fifth-year option attached to Jones’ rookie contract.
The first-round pick from the 2019 NFL Draft responded by producing his best overall season while playing under first-year head coach Brian Daboll. Just as importantly, the 25-year-old didn’t miss a game because of injury for the first time as a pro.
According to ESPN, Jones finished the regular season tied for 13th among eligible quarterbacks with a 92.5 passer rating, seventh with a 60.8 total QBR, and tied for fifth with a 67.2% completion percentage. He was 15th with 3,205 passing yards and tied for 21st with 15 touchdowns through the air, but he was also fifth among signal-callers with 708 rushing yards and tied for third with seven rushing scores.
Like Jones, Giants star running back Saquon Barkley is in the final months of his rookie deal and is set to hit free agency. Schoen indicated that keeping Barkley isn’t as much a priority as building around Jones, but Raanan pointed out that the Giants can use the franchise tag to keep one of its top play-makers and still sign the other one.
Raanan projected the franchise tag for a quarterback to be at around $31.7 million for next season, while the tag for a running back will be closer to $9.9 million. March 7 is the NFL deadline to designate franchise or transition players, and the new league year begins on March 15.
